Paul Durousseau (born August 10, 1970) is an Americanserial killer who
murderer seven young women
(including two who were pregnant) in the southeast United States
between 1997 and 2003. German authorities suspect he may have killed
several local women when he was stationed there with the Army
during the early 1990s. Typically, Durousseau would gain the
victim’s trust, enter the victim’s home, tie their hands, rape, then strangle them to death.[1]
All of his known victims were young, single African
American women.

Contents

Personal
life

Paul Durousseau was born in Beaumont, Texas. Little is known publicly about Paul
Durousseau's childhood. His first offenses with the law as an adult
took place on December 18th 1991 and on January 21st 1992 for carrying a concealed
firearm in California[2]. In
November of 1992, he enlisted in the US Army[3] and was
stationed in Germany, where he met Natoca, who would later become
his wife. The two married in 1995 in Las Vegas. In 1996, they were
transferred to Fort
Benning, Georgia. On March 13th 1997, he
was arrested for kidnapping and raping a young woman. However, in August of that
year he was cleared of those charges. Soon after, he was found in
possession of stolen goods. He was court-martialed in January 1999, found
guilty and dishonorably
discharged from the Army.[4]

The two moved to Natoca Durousseau's hometown of Jacksonville, Florida where they had two daughters. It was
during that period that he committed most of the murders. He
struggled to keep jobs and make ends meet, and the couple would
often have fights over the issue of finances. In 1999, the police
advised Durousseau's wife on how to file for a restraining
order after he allegedly slapped her in the face and grabbed
her by the neck. Later, she testified he got violently angry when
she talked about getting a divorce. In September and October of
2001, Durousseau spent 48 days in jail for domestic
battery.[5]

Durousseau still managed to be for various legitimate jobs. In
2001, he was hired as a school bus driver and an animal control
worker despite being a convicted felon. In 2003, he worked as a taxi driver in Jacksonville.
The Gator City Taxi Company failed to run a background check on
Durousseau[6] and it
is now accepted that this is how he first became into contact with
some of his victims.

Neighbors and friends described his as a "lewd womanizer".[7] He
often asked young women when they planned to "make flicks" with him. Witnesses recall him trying to
seduce girls as young as 13 years of age.

Chronology of the
murders

Less than one month after the acquittal over the raping charges,
the nude body 26 year-old Tracy Habersham was found September 7th
1997 in Fort Benning.[8] She had
been missing for 48 hours and was last seen leaving a party. She
had been raped and strangled to death with a cord. Paul Durousseau
was not a suspect in the murder but DNA would later tie him to the crime. He
also would confess in Habersham's killing after his arrest. [9][10] In
1999, he raped and killed 24 year-old Tyresa Mack in her apartment.
Witnesses saw him leave her place with a television.[11] In
2001, he was arrested for raping a young woman in Jacksonville. He
spent 30 days in jail and received two years' probation. On December 19th 2002, 18 year-old
Nicole L. Williams' body was found wrapped in a blue blanket at the
bottom of a ditch in Jacksonville. She had been reported missing
two days earlier.[12]

On January 1st 2003, family members of 19 year-old Nikia
Kilpatrick went to check on her. They had not had any news from her
for several days. They found her body in the bedroom of her
apartment. She had been raped then killed by strangulation with a
cord two days before. Her two sons, eleven month- and two year-old,
were alive but malnourished. Kilpatrick was approximately
six months pregnant at the time of her death.[13]

On January 9th of the same year, 20 year-old nurse assistant Shawanda Denise McCalister,
who was also pregnant at the time of her death, was raped and
strangled to death in her Jacksonville apartment. The murder scene
was almost identical to that of Nikia Kilpatrick. She was killed on
Durousseau's first day of driving a cab for Gator City Taxi. Her
body was found the following day. The next two victims were 17
year-old Jovanna Jefferson, and 19 year-old Surita Cohen. Their
bodies were found close to each other in a ditch next to a
construction site on New Kings Road in Jacksonville on February
5th. Police estimated that Jefferson was murdered around January
20th and Cohen was killed 10 days later. Witnesses recount having
seen the two last victims with a taxi driver fitting Paul
Durousseau's description on the night they disappeared.

He was arrested and charged with five counts of murder on June
17th 2003. On December 13th 2007 he was sentenced to die by lethal
injection for the murder of Tyresa Mack.